Miss Singapore World Pilar Arlando: Merlions are extinct in 1965
October 14th, 2009 | 
Author: From our Correspondent
Just when the saga over the former Miss Singapore World Ris Low appears to be over, the new Miss Singapore World Pilar Arlando now comes under heavy fire from netizens for having “zero IQ”!
Chinese tabloid Shin Min Daily carried a report on its front page yesterday with the headlines – “Second Runner-up’s IQ is ZERO”.
Miss Ris Low was forced to relinquish her crown after it was revealed by the press that she was on probation for credit card fraud.
The first runner-up, Miss Claire Lee was unable to represent Singapore in the Miss World pageant to be held in Africa end of the year due to a chronic back problem.
Being the second runner-up, Miss Pilar Arlando is the organizers’ choice to replace Miss Ris Low.
This question was posed to Miss Pilar Arlando during the competition. It seems the reporter had asked her “When did the Merlion become extinct?”. And Pilar replied “1965″.
Unfortunately, the media’s latest move to keep the fiasco alive in the minds of Singaporeans to distract them from important national issues had backfired dramatically this time.
Miss Arlando’s interview was shown on RazorTV a few weeks ago and there was no furore from the media or blogosphere then.
Sammyboy forumer merbenz wrote:
“All this chinese tabloid bery slow reaction, that razorTV interview came out so long already, and only now they reported it, plus that Malaysia gambling king grand daughter’s pic already out long long time ago, and they treat it like brand new happenings.”
Alamkat king added:
“New Paper worst leh, their news always 2 weeks late than Wanbao, LOL
shoutloud expressed his disgust at the endless media publicity:
“Can the media give the whole thing a rest? I am getting sick of them pulling down every single candidate with their biased and nonsensical coverage.”
It appears that the state media is fast running out of options to keep its flagging readership up and has to resort to exploiting young innocent girls for news.
Posted in Editorial
OMG, here we go again…… I think Singapore should skip Ms World competition this year…
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wow…i think we have to accept the fact that people are dumb… and that the same could be said of organisers of beauty pagaents that somehow manages to let the positions of number 1,2 and 3, be claimed by people who do not possess an ounce of fluency in the common language and the people who ponteng kindergarten class.
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by people i meant some people…
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Nearly 80% of women know nothing about currents affairs. Ask them to tell u about makeup and looking good and they will spit out an encyclopedia.
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wow…a sexist with numbers based on his own life experience…
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pun not intended…
i wunder media corpse which is aleady actuating itself out as a “dead” corpse trying to re-surrect even deader past “media” corpses to keep us literally entertain in a dead fashion or trying to divert attention from its corpse like demeanor…
Guuuuukkkk…
i have just fallen over dead meself at this un-remitting attack/diversion from this aleady dead then deader corpse.
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Did Merlion become extinct in 1965 ? Where did she read that from ? which history book, man ?
…..Oh dear, this are SGP products !
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aiyoh, not knowing these things dont mean one is dumb lah. knowledge doesn’t equate to ability to think. besides there is such a wide spectrum of intellgence, a stupid measurement like IQ can only wander like a soul lost in the hell of croaking bots.
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No..to me, the big story is..
who is ERM Marketing?
Who is this Tracey Lee?
Who owns ERM Marketing?
How come she can declare who represents Singapore at Miss World, on her whim and fancy?
Does ERM Marketing run the Miss World pageant according to the same rules applied elsewhere in the world?
Who sponsors Miss World and what do they get out of the sponsorship?
Does the international franchisee for Miss World gives seed funding to organise the Singapore Miss World?
who should the Miss World pageant be accountable to – sponsors, ERM Marketing or Singaporeans?
and finally
HOW LONG HAS THIS SHAM BEEN GOING ON??
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The MSM is trying to distract Singaporeans from the the losses incurred by Temasek and GIC.
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i agree with sheldon. inability to answer a history question doesn’t equate to low IQ. everybody has his/her own area of expertise. c’mon ppl, this is ms singapore world competition, not ms IQ professor competition.
by the way, isit ‘merlion’ or ‘mermaid’? title states mermaid but contents mentioned merlion…contradicting..
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Actually, our contestant may yet be vindicated had she said: “Mermaids being a figment of the colonial imagination has quite rightly ceased to exist for Singaporeans when we got our independence in 1965.”
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What is dumb is people continuing to vote for PAP after consistently being screwed in the backside for 40 years.
All others acts paled compared to the dumb voters who voted for PAP. Not only do they caused harm to themselves, they caused harm to others who did not vote for PAP.
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Actually it is a case of Dumb and Dumber. The reporter was certainly dumb in asking when the Merlion had become extinct.(The Merlion is the figment of some Tourist Board highly paid over imaginative honcho)The answer was of course dumber. Maybe next year somebody will come up with a better question like:
Regarding the Merlion, here is a question. Did the lion jump into the sea or did the mermaid go into the forest?
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“mermaid” or “merlion”
TR, no check for inconsistencies in article?
Remember TOC statred its slide to obvilion because no-one there wanted to check details. Everyone wanted to be Indian chief not coolie.
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perhaps, as a Eurasian, you guys are missing the point – such a stupid inane question deserves a stupid answer.
PS What is the Chinese word for “sarcasm”?
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matt` on Thu, 15th Oct 2009 9:55 pm
perhaps, as a Eurasian, you guys are missing the point – such a stupid inane question deserves a stupid answer.
PS What is the Chinese word for “sarcasm”?
hahaha…yar right…are you saying that eurasians are generally more sarcastic in nature?
Actually a better question would be, What reason do you think might explain why the Authorities think that a half fish half lion should puke its guts out all day?
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Hmmm.. What I really wanna know is the people who said she has zero IQ in the first place. The people who said it must have been seriously flawed if they base IQ questions on those 2 questions alone. I think the people who said she has zero IQ is/are actual morons to begin with. Hahahaha.
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Why does the one in esplanade with the 2 little ones puke all day and not the one at sentosa? Hahaha…..
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Of course shin min has an obligation to its readers to assure them that their “perfect” candidate is actually smarter than than the Eurasian.
At least Miss Arlando is far prettier than Miss Low. It doesnt pay to be sarcastic in a beauty contest, or be honest of one’s own belief system. Ask Miss California, Carrie Prejean. No matter how gay or stupid the judges are, one must always maintain that mask of diplomacy.
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I feel so sorry for Pilar, but I agree that she HAS to brush up on her General Knowledge before representing Singapore.
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hi there
1. the merlion did not extinct; one is at the mouth of the sin river and the other over at sentosa.
2. honest, this is the case of dumb,dumber and dumbest.
3. risky being dumb, fair enough, pilar is dumber as we believe she is smarter (though looks smart) but the dumbest is erm.
4. the miss world sin saga is a mockery to all sinkies.
5. why is such a prestigious title at the mercy of erm?
6. the funny thing is that no one (always in white) except the big mouther lbw jumped in.
7. yes, just forget such crap and move on!
8. after all, beauty is always in the eyes of the beholder, and not some 11 lousy sub-std judges and erm.
9. it just looks like a big scam.
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“I feel so sorry for Pilar, but I agree that she HAS to brush up on her General Knowledge before representing Singapore.”
In order to cover up the winner’s ineptitude, some people are tarring no 2 and no 3 with the same brush. It is not her lack of GENERAL knowledge (world politics); she had gotten Singapore’s age wrong, which could be a simple mistake as she clearly knows the year in which SG was founded: 1965.
For all those morons who confuse IQ with EQ, what is the correct answer to the question : “When did the Merlion become extinct?” You have got 2 seconds to answer.
Can a contestant say this as would most normal people would: “This is a trick question which I refuse to answer.” or “I didn’t know that the Merlion existed” which would be perceived as sarcastic. Coincidentally this is reported in Malaysia as well in the Star:
“NETIZENS in Singapore have turned on their latest beauty queen, Pilar Carmelita Arlando, saying she has zero IQ.”
Notice the word Netizens and not the F’g Shin Min.
I dont want to say racism, but these are very very skewed questions. I wonder what was Miss Low’s questions.
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This is similar in politics, a reporter can suggest innuendos in a loaded question to a politician like “When have you stopped beating your wife”?
Oh dear I think some people are really trying very hard to prove something by accusing Miss Arlando of stupidity.
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“1. the merlion did not extinct; one is at the mouth of the sin river and the other over at sentosa.”
Prime example of Ms Ris Low and her people.
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“I dont want to say racism, but these are very very skewed questions. I wonder what was Miss Low’s questions.”
yeah you shouldn’t say racism, because the same question was asked to a group of contestants (indian, malay,chinese), and a few of them answered to the line of ‘ merlion is mythological, it never existed. ‘ ris was not on that video, if i remember correctly.
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The point being there cannot be ANY correct answer to a question that posits a falsity. Also why ask how old is Singapore? They may as well ask who the contestants’ MPs are or “109-65=?”
These are not the kind of questions that would be asked at the Miss World. Absolutely ridiculous. However as an ambassador for Singapore, she better have a good answer for what makes Singapore so unique.
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if by a question that posits a falsity, you are refering to the merlion question, i think that question is meant as a trick question. as to the point of a question that does not have any correct answer, i should think open ended questions allow leeway in creativity in answering.
those questions were not asked during the contest. they were asked by razor tv interviewers during a break in their photo-shoot or something. informal setting.
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start with a proper selction of the organiser.somebody at STB must protect” Singapore” brand name.Pre qualify the organiser.
Ris Low failed us ,and now this new msw 2009 is equally dumd and shallow.What is happening with the selection process?
Fortunately for ms.boomz, she dropped out Had stayed on to represent Singapore, am sure more scandalous stuff of her past will surface.
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Was the singaporean press always like this? This is like tabloid news for goodness sake!
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WAT the hell is wrong with u people ?? all u guys do is mock and bring people down . So what if she’s not good in her general knowledge ,than advice ,give an idea not mock that person. u people will never freaking change . IF U THINK U GUYS ARE SOOOOOOO DAMN GOOD THAN Y Don’t U SHUT UP AND TAKE PART IN THECOMPETITION representing Singapore. THAN maybe u guys know the pressure.The more u idiots go on like this ,the next thing u know there wouldn’t be anyone taking part to represent Singapore for anything .
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